Trout unlimited will establish a new watershed group, snake river headwaters watershed group, to increase the health and resiliency of the snake river headwaters in northwest wyoming

This Project Grant award, funded by the Bureau of Reclamation's Cooperative Watershed Management Program (CFDA 15.554), will provide $299,189 to Trout Unlimited, Inc. to establish the Snake River Headwaters Watershed Group in northwest Wyoming. The group will work to increase the health and resiliency of the Snake River Headwaters, which is facing challenges from declining snowpack, earlier runoff, and rapid development.

Key activities to be carried out under this grant include:

• Forming the watershed group and facilitating collaboration among federal, state, local, and private stakeholders
• Developing an integrated watershed management plan to address water supply, water quality, and habitat issues
• Implementing on-the-ground restoration and conservation projects in the watershed

Trout Unlimited will subcontract $247,289 to Legacy Philanthropy Works to provide facilitation, communications, and administrative support for the watershed group. The award period is from September 17, 2024 to September 30, 2027.

Over the past decade, water quantity in the snake headwaters was not a major concern due to favorable snowpack conditions. However, 2021 and 2022 brought a below average snowpack and dry conditions and climate forecasts predict declining annual snowpack and earlier runoff. In addition, TETON county is one of wyomings fastest-growing regions and substantial development occurs in critical areas like valley bottoms, historic floodplains, and along the snake river and its tributaries. These changes are significantly impacting the water supply outlook in the watershed, as well as water quality and aquatic, riparian, and wetland habitat conditions. Numerous federal, state, and local agencies, private landowners, water users, recreational guides and outfitters, conservation nonprofits, and business leaders are interested in engaging in the new watershed group. The strong partnership will enable the group to tackle watershed-scale challenges with streamlined projects, reduce misinformation, expand public awareness, and provide elected officials with improved information to make informed decisions. Planning efforts include national park (grand TETON and yellowstone) and national forest (BRIDGER-TETON) lands, with a small portion of U.S. Fish and wildlife service (national ELK refuge) lands, as well as two major storage reservoirs of the bureau of reclamations upper snake system (jackson lake and palisades reservoir).